...The Digestae or the Codex of Justinian; this work transformed the ancient texts into a living tradition of Medieval Roman Law). • The glosses, which primarily quote the origins of the Wife’s remarks, may go back to Chaucer himself; the glosses could have been notes to the reader, or for Chaucer. Most of the glosses quote from Jerome and his own citations from the Scripture, but rarely from the bible. Comments on astrological disposition are from a Ptolemaic work (Almansoris propositiones). • The dynamic of the glosses reinforce the notion that the Wife’s Prologue is both literary text with authoritative sources, and a shocking instance of female power. Genre • There is no other Prologue like the Wife’s in the Tales – or in Medieval Literature at large. Its materials are primarily derived from antifeminist tracts, but it is not a tract (A Roman Catholic anthem). • The Prologue can be linked to the medieval version of autobiography known as confessio, but though the Wife admits her former ‘misliving’ (which could be interpreted as confessional), but it’s tone and her/Chaucer’s purpose take it far away from a ‘theological’ form of confession…the Wife has not the slightest intention of changing her life. • Several of Chaucer’s sources allow the...
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...Divine Hypocrisy (A literary analysis of Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his audience) As you go through life you learn that many times most people do not agree with what you do. They all have their own interests as we have our own. People of all denominations perform many different jobs some even the same jobs, but others out do the others in their field. Chaucer is considered to be one of the greatest English poets of all time. Many refer to him as the father of the English language. Chaucer wrote one of the best known books titled Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s literary work is one of the most famous books to ever be written. Within his book there are many smaller stories told by different characters told within it. All of the smaller...
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...Corruption of the Church has plagued many Christian societies throughout history as dishonest members misinterpret and misuse the word of God. This is especially true in fifteenth century England. In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer uses estates satire, ridiculing not only the Clergymen but all three social classes in order to highlight the flaws of society. He uses specifically uses “The Pardoner’s Tale” to highlight the deep-seated corruption of the Church during this particular time. The social commentary is focused around a Pardoner, authorized to grant forgiveness of sins, or indulgences, as a hyperbolic example of the flaws in the Church. Chaucer exposes increasing corruption, issues with clergymen, and the normality of deception...
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...their original purpose is fulfilled. Although this is a solemn tale teaching that “greed is the root of all evil,” the Pardoner is a con artist of the highest degree, a rap artist who preaches morality strictly for his own profit, merchandising and scamming his way to a fortune at the expense of his poor fans. Baba Brinkman’s solo performance, “The Rap Canterbury Tales,” first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004. It is a re-creation of Chaucer’s fourteenth century poem, in which a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury enter into a tale-telling contest. Every element of the performance closely parallels Chaucer’s original text, but in a contemporary setting. Baba Brinkman plays Chaucer, who is both the narrator and a participant in the pilgrimage. In this case, he is a hip-hop fan who goes to a rap concert and manages to stow away on the tour bus after the show. The rappers, to his surprise, decide to stage a storytelling battle to help pass time on the road between gigs, and each of the Tales is an exact retelling of one of the pilgrim stories. As the narrator, Brinkman/Chaucer attempts to recount the exact experience of the journey word for word, transforming into the various characters to tell their tales. Web Resources: http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/chaucer/audio.acds http://www.babasword.com/ This table shows a passage from the original Middle English version of "The Pardoner's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer, contrasted with...
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...In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, intertextuality represents specific aspects of the character’s ideals and personalities, and Chaucer uses it to meet his ends by calling attention to the continual misinterpretation of words. In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue, biblical excerpts in the “Book of Wikked Wyves” are misrepresented by both the compiler of the text and the clerk, Jenkyn, current husband of the Wife of Bath. The compiler of the book believed that what he wrote was true, based on pieces of text he picked through to find those that comply with the view he already had of women. The Wife of Bath combats the “Book of Wikked Wyves,” as well as every reading therein, with her question of “Who peynted the leoun, tel me who?” arguing that if women...
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...Modern-day Western society holds excessively strict views about gender roles in society, specifically when concerning who performs certain moves in the intricate dance of relationships. Many stereotypes have developed due to different pieces of literature and society in general. Men court women and rescue them from danger. Women learn the necessary skills to become a proper housewife and mother. For a man to successfully complete the requirements of his “part” in the relationship, he must provide for his spouse and assert his dominance as the head of the household. The woman must then complete the dance by deferring to her husband’s wishes and presenting the perfect picture of a cultured, subservient wife. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and Lanval by Marie de France challenge this notion. In both works, the women represent the dominant force in the relationship, reversing gender roles and overturning modern-day gender stereotypes. However, despite the fact that both pieces of literature oppose the standards of the time, the social commentary the two works provide greatly contrast. Although Lanval still incorporates many of the common romantic stereotypes, The Canterbury Tales does not address these stereotypes; not only does the work present a profoundly different picture, illustrating a highly negative image of what occurs when women contain the power in a relationship, but also it also gives this classic piece of literature less relevancy in the eyes of the modern-day...
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...At the beginning of the “Pardoner’s Prologue,” the wise and rational teachings of the Pardoner, exhibited by his astute preaching, shift to corrupt and hypocritical lessons throughout the tale. The Pardoner, wise and educated, preaches to the villagers about greed and avarice. The Pardoner prasingly preaches that “Radix malorum est cupitidas (Greed is the root of evil)”, a sermon topic in which he always preaches to his congregations (8). The Pardoner attentively advises that love for money is the cause for all evil. In addition to money causing evil, the astute preacher exclaims in his tale that greed will eventually lead to death. This sermon’s purpose is to correct the sins of the congregation, however the Pardoner utilizes his knowledge...
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...Summary of CT The Canterbury Tales begins with the introduction of each of the pilgrims making their journey to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knight's Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself. Congregating at the Tabard Inn, the pilgrims decide to tell stories to pass their time on the way to Canterbury. The Host of the Tabard Inn sets the rules for the tales. Each of the pilgrims will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two stories on the return trip. The Host will decide whose tale is best for meaningfulness and for fun. They decide to draw lots to see who will tell the first tale, and the Knight receives the honor. The Knight's Tale is a tale about two knights, Arcite and Palamon, who are captured in battle and imprisoned in Athens under the order of King Theseus. While imprisoned in a tower, both see Emelye, the sister of Queen Hippolyta, and fall instantly in love with her. Both knights eventually leave prison separately: a friend of Arcite begs Theseus to release him, while Palamon later escapes. Arcite returns to the Athenian court disguised as a servant, and when Palamon escapes he suddenly finds Arcite. They fight over Emelye, but...
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...reveals his love for Emily not knowing he is being heard. Hearing Arcite profess his love for Emily, Palamon becomes overwhelmed with anger. Preparing to fight, Palamon approaches Arcite and threatens to kill him. Their feeling for each-other are mutual and Arcite fetches weapons for them to use. They begin fighting over Emily yet again, cousin against cousin. “You might judge that Palamon in his fighting were a mad lion and Arcite a cruel tiger…up to the ankles they fought in blood.” (47) The drama increases expontentially while the close cousins turn their backs on each-other over a shared love. They are willing to die and kill their loved one to achieve a girl they don’t even know. Chaucer describes the cousins as wild animals to give the reader a glimps of the violent fighting going on. Chaucer uses violence to captivate the audience and pull them into the...
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...recruitment team. A new business model was agreed which involved creating two centralised recruitment centres. It was crucial to work closely with the current recruitment team to implement this step change while maintaining an effective business as usual status. In parallel the new organisation needed to be aligned with the wider organisational changes in Upstream. The solution Specialist project and change management support from Chaucer was integrated within the Upstream recruitment team to support the implementation of change and provide management control and visibility. The project was broken down into work streams. The scope would cover: Changing the organisational structure. Changes to the recruitment processes. Implementation of a new cost model. Implementation of global sourcing and brand attraction. Chaucer established the overall project structure and implemented fit for purpose project management methods and tools to provide rigour and discipline for developing activity plans for each workstream. Chaucer also developed the overall reporting process to monitor progress and highlight any issues. A change plan, stakeholder analysis and communication material were created to cascade the Recruitment message. A roadmap was produced that would smooth the transition to the centralised model. A single consolidated demand forecast was required to provide a clear profile of the skills and capabilities the business would need. A dedicated Performance...
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...“THE CANTERBURY TALES” BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER COURSE PAPER PRESENTED BY LILIA YAREMA a fourth year student of the English department SUPERVISED BY SPODARYK O. V. an assistant professor of the English department LVIV 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 3-4 CHAPTER I. THEORETICAL ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS…… 5-16 1.1 Linguistic analysis……………………………………………… 5-8 1.2 Discourse and Text analyses….…………….………………….. 9-11 1.3 Stylistic analysis ………………………………………………… 12-16 CHAPTER II. LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF CHAUCER’S CHARACTERS 17-28 2.1 “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” ……………………………………… 18-22 2.2 “The Pardoner’s Tale” ………………………………………….. 23-28 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………. 29-30 REFERENCES...… ………………………………………………………….. 31-32 INTRODUCTION The theme of the course paper is “Linguistic means of portraying main characters in “The Canterbury tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer”. This paper intends to make an analysis of the language in the collection of stories “The Canterbury Tales”, written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of 14th century. We will analyze the language used to describe characters. It was based on the idea that every choice made by the author of a sentence is meaningful. Therefore, once we understand the choices the author makes when describing a character, we are able to have a better understanding of what this author expects of the readers. Geoffrey Chaucer is recognized as one of England’s greatest...
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...Part of the reason why The Canterbury Tales as a collection is so memorable is because of its dramatic nature. Some tales create drama through their plots, others create drama through various interjections and responses, and some create drama through their build up. Specifically, in regards to “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”, the drama stems from the Wife of Bath as a character, and not as much from the tale itself. As a character, it is obvious that the Wife of Bath is a fierce woman with an I-don’t-give-a-shit type of attitude. She does what she wants and knows how to get her way: “And have this tribulacioun withal upon his flessh, whyl that I am his wyf. I have the power duringe al my lyf upon his proper body, and nought he.” (Chaucer...
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...Illinois Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 182.69.107.77 on Mon, 17 Aug 2015 10:45:38 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A CONJECTURE ON THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE of Bath's the Wife When for the first reading Prologue time, I remember my surprise upon reaching line 193 to find continued for several hundred lines, whereas that the Prologue a tale to follow. With I had expected each reading since, I in adjusting my expecta the same difficulty have experienced found. This repeated experience, tion to what I actually and I suspect it has come to all readers of Chaucer, in finally the matter. The result is a theory cited me to investigate which holds that the first part of the Prologue through line 193 was originally Pro by the present preceded Shipman's a number of lines which were later omitted, and that logue plus to the present the whole served as a Wife's...
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...FULL TITLE · The Canterbury Tales AUTHOR · Geoffrey Chaucer TYPE OF WORK · Poetry (two tales are in prose: the Tale of Melibee and the Parson’s Tale) GENRES · Narrative collection of poems; character portraits; parody; estates satire; romance; fabliau LANGUAGE · Middle English TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · Around 1386–1395, England DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · Sometime in the early fifteenth century PUBLISHER · Originally circulated in hand-copied manuscripts NARRATOR · The primary narrator is an anonymous, naïve member of the pilgrimage, who is not described. The other pilgrims narrate most of the tales. POINT OF VIEW · In the General Prologue, the narrator speaks in the first person, describing each of the pilgrims as they appeared to him. Though narrated by different pilgrims, each of the tales is told from an omniscient third-person point of view, providing the reader with the thoughts as well as actions of the characters. TONE · The Canterbury Tales incorporates an impressive range of attitudes toward life and literature. The tales are by turns satirical, elevated, pious, earthy, bawdy, and comical. The reader should not accept the naïve narrator’s point of view as Chaucer’s. TENSE · Past SETTING (TIME) · The late fourteenth century, after 1381 SETTING (PLACE) · The Tabard Inn; the road to Canterbury PROTAGONISTS · Each individual tale has protagonists, but Chaucer’s plan is to make none of his storytellers superior to others; it is an equal company. In the Knight’s...
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...Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale reflect the anti-feministic ideologies of women’s sexuality, marriage and female sovereignty of Medieval time. In her prologue, Alison shamelessly gloats about her sexual exploits. She is also proud of the way she uses sexual power to get what she wants. By doing this she is confirming the negative stereotypes about women and proving that women are manipulative and deceitful. Although at first it many seem like she is rebelling against the male-dominated society, in reality she does little to empower the women of her time. Alison is one of the most memorable characters of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, her voice is different from the other pilgrims— loud, self-promoting and arrogant. Alison’s character...
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